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Clinch fighting is the primary focus of many combat sports such as Judo and it is also a fundamental part of Amateur Wrestling, Sambo, Muay Thai and Mixed martial arts. The nature of the clinch is fighting in each sport depends on the rules involved. Muay Thai put much emphasis on strikes from the clinch, while Judo focuses on throws. The rule common to all these forms is the allowance for the grappling necessary to form a clinch. Others combat sports like Boxing or Taekwondo only allow clinching for a short time or do not allow it at all. If clinching is disallowed, the clinching fighter will be issued a warning, or the referee will restart the fight from a distance.

Grip fighting in the clinch and especially throwing is the primary focus in Judo.

The clinch is a powerful tool for grapplers to advance into a dominant position in ground fighting, or is used for scoring points or winning a match such as a grand amplitude throw in Amateur Wrestling or an ippon in Judo. The type of techniques employed are heavily dependent on whether or not the participants are wearing clothing heavy enough to be grabbed and used to gain leverage or unbalance them to set up throws. In competitive environments examples of such clothing would be the Judogi, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu gi or the Kurtka.

In competition where such clothing is being worn (almost exclusively referred to as a gi) there is a strong emphasis on grip fighting where the fighters will attempt to gain a dominant hold on the opponent's gi to unbalance and throw them. Examples of such competition would be Judo, Sambo or some Brazilian Jiu Jitsu competitions although in BJJ there is frequently a division for both gi and no-gi competition.

In no-gi competition getting double underhooks is generally considered advantageous, as the position can be used to perform throws or takedowns. Being behind the opponent in such a position is known as getting the back, and is generally considered even more advantageous, since it is harder for the opponent to defend from that position. A typical example of a technique that can be performed from this position is the suplex.

Delivering knee and elbow strikes in the clinch is an important part of Muay Thai and Kun Khmer training.

While clinching, the position of a fighter's arms is vitally important. The fighter always tries to keep his arms on the inside of his opponent's, allowing him to press his elbows together building a tighter grip. The fighter attempts to always hold his hands in a "cupping" position.

Wing Chun and JKD practitioners develop hand-and-forearm-only trapping techniques in its close-range fighting method which generally involves lap sao (hand grabbing), tan sao (palm-up hand-blocking) and pak sao (slap-blocking) as in chi sao ("sticking hands") drills, with the intent of blocking or trapping the opponents strikes alone, in order to set up an immediate counterstrike.

There is no intent of tangling up to put each other "on-hold", taking-down or submitting the opponent with these techniques (the "hand-tangling" in "sticking hands" drill is only for the purpose of practicing hand and forearm sensitivity and reflex actions), also, the torso itself is generally not involved, unlike in grappling techniques.